Nicole Kidman on Babygirl, Stanley Kubrick, Madonna and Courtney Love

For those who assume Nicole Kidman is taking part in the name position in “Babygirl,” the Oscar-winning actress desires a phrase with you.

It’s only some days earlier than Christmas and I’m speaking to Kidman over Zoom for the primary “Only for Selection” episode of 2025.

Written and directed by way of Halina Reijn, the erotic mystery stars Kidman as a tech CEO who has an overly kinky sub-dom affair with an intern, performed by way of Harris Dickinson.

I ask Kidman if she or Dickinson is the babygirl.

“Each, proper?” she says. “As Halina says within the ‘father determine’ scene, we’re now not reasonably positive who’s the father. One minute I’m the father, subsequent minute he’s the father, which is what I really like about the way in which during which she depicts the generations, the way in which during which energy doesn’t topic what age you might be, the way it shifts. I feel the whole lot’s subverted on this movie.”

The next Q&A has been edited for duration and readability. You’ll be able to pay attention to the complete dialog on “Only for Selection.”

Inform me about your technique of first studying the script. Do you might have a ritual that you just do whilst you learn a script? Do you pass off right into a nook someplace? Or is it anyone sends it to you and also you get started studying?

Neatly, if it’s a excellent script, I imply, I take a seat down and I get started studying. After which if it holds me, I simply learn and I don’t forestall. After which I make notes, right away.

Straight away?

Kubrick taught me that. He mentioned, “As a result of there’s no thing more than the primary learn. After that, it’s all going to be a quite other reaction response, nevertheless it gained’t be speedy and intuitive.” And all of the concepts that seem or the loss of issues in there. So he used to ship you the script in an envelope and say, “I’m going to select it up in two hours,” after which he would take it again, to just remember to sat and skim it.

Did you ship it again to Kubrick with notes?

I didn’t make any notes with him. I used to be similar to, “I’m in, no matter. I don’t even wish to learn it.” However with Halina and with each script since therefore, I’ll make notes right away. If I will be able to’t end it, then I realize it’s now not for me. And that isn’t as it’s excellent or dangerous, it simply approach I’m now not in it. However with one thing like “Babygirl,” I learn starting to finish after which I simply known as her and mentioned, “K, how can we get it made? What can we do? Inform me now what to do.” We additionally simply talked so much about what it made me really feel, what I replied to, concepts and I had questions for her. It was once other to what the movie is now, as it was once the primary draft, or it was once I feel, considered one of her first drafts the place it was once nonetheless within the shaping shape. There have been issues in it that you just and I will be able to speak about once more, that don’t seem to be in there now. But it surely was once gorgeous to be on that floor stage, coming into the challenge that approach. For the reason that different instances you input and it’s a last draft and there’s not anything to be shifted or moved. So this was once very a lot, it was once nonetheless in movement. However the concepts had been so forged and the construction was once forged.

How a lot is your resolution whilst you’re studying the script going, “I more or less concern this, that suggests I wish to do it?”

No, that’s too cerebral for me. It’s too highbrow. I used to be grew to become on by way of it. I used to be overjoyed. I used to be all in favour of the true scenes and issues, after which I used to be scared. I had virtually like an target market reaction to it. And I simply cherished Romy. I imply, I cherished Samuel too. I cherished Jacob. It was once at all times taking me by way of wonder, as a result of the whole lot I assumed that it was once going to be, it wasn’t. And I simply was once actually captured by way of it. I used to be Romy when I used to be studying it. It’s visceral. The film is visceral, and in order that was once my reaction to it. Then it was once like, “Neatly, how can we do that?” There have been issues the place I used to be like, “Gosh, I don’t perceive this,” as a result of Romy didn’t perceive what she was once doing. So there have been those peculiar pictures, which I used to be like, “What does that imply?” However that’s as it’s a dreamscape combined with a style movie.

There are some hypotheses, some ideas in the market that that is all Romy’s dream, a fable.

I didn’t assume that once I learn it. I really like other responses… And I will be able to be satisfied of that now, observing it, I will be able to pass, “Ah, attention-grabbing.” However that’s now not how I first of all skilled it.

When other folks began to inform me why they idea that, I used to be like, “K, how did he get this internship? He’s a little bit too schlubby for this position. Perhaps he’s a little bit too previous?”

When it was once unfolding, I used to be like, “Did he if truth be told plant himself in there, as a result of he’d observed her and met her previous in the future and change into obsessed?” Who is aware of? That’s at all times the push-pull in it. And Halina has robust solutions to it, however I’m at all times reluctant to reply to the ones issues as a result of audiences will have to at all times be capable to confirm what they would like from it. It’s like whilst you pass and notice a portray and also you pass, “Neatly, now it appears to be like other,” or, “Now I’m responding another way to it,” or, “What I used to be angry by way of, I’m now attracted to.”

That’s what makes artwork attention-grabbing, that you just’re having a dialogue in a while. Two human beings have watched the similar film on the similar time, and your brains are getting into utterly other instructions. That’s resonating. I believe that’s without equal purpose for an artist.

Wonderful, sure. And I’ve been in movies that experience executed that. That is an excessive model of it, one of the crucial excessive for me.

I do know you’ve mentioned “Eyes Large Close” is extra of the male lens with a male protagonist.

Neatly, marriage, it was once a few marriage. However clearly, I used to be in a unique sphere. I used to be a part of his tale. And now two decades later, this can be a factor, however they’re very other movies. I’ve turned around grief and loss and intercourse and fable and need and craving. Issues which are attention-grabbing. I imply, I really like dealing in several nation-states too, like in “Rabbit Hollow,” the place it’s about parallel universes virtually, and in need of to exist in a parallel universe, as a result of this universe is painful. The ones issues resonate deeply. However I really like, as I say, filmmakers who’ve philosophical issues of view.

The opposite evening, me and a host of my homosexual boy buddies had been having a Nicole Kidman love fest.

I really like that. Inform me extra. Why wasn’t I invited?

My pal Glenn turns and is going, “You understand what? I really like what she mentioned just lately about why she’s appearing such a lot and the way it empowers feminine filmmakers. And he or she may just get tales made.” I mentioned, “Neatly, to begin with, that was once my interview I did together with her, so thank you.”

That was once to you. That went in all places. Thanks. It was once simply us speaking at the crimson carpet.

It was once any such gorgeous resolution. And I don’t know if other folks didn’t be expecting that will be the resolution. However when you mentioned it, it is sensible.

I am getting to place my weight and my energy and my voice in the back of other folks which are both having 2nd probabilities, 3rd probabilities, starting or desiring steering. That’s a function for me, so I’m satisfied to be doing it.

Are you aware the primary time I noticed you, Nicole?

The place?

The Vainness Honest Oscar Birthday celebration whilst you had been dressed in the Galliano get dressed.

That’s when Madonna and Courtney Love mentioned to me, “Best possible dressed,” and I used to be like, “What? Oh my God.” Either one of them. They made my yr.

I didn’t know what the Vainness Honest Birthday celebration was once. I used to be an assistant at Premiere and I began a birthday celebration web page. I walked in and I mentioned, “Everybody’s well-known in right here. That is wild.”

Premiere was once a actually excellent mag, wasn’t it?

That was once my first process in leisure journalism.

Wow. I used to be simply actually beginning out. I’d executed issues in Australia after which I came around right here and I did “Days of Thunder.” That’s loopy. But it surely’s pretty too, as a result of I really like that you just’re nonetheless right here and we’ve grown up in combination, we’ve watched issues alternate and shift, however we’re nonetheless extremely fascinated by what’s to come back and what’s occurring now. It’s so great to be a very important a part of it nonetheless, proper?

However the only factor, you might have by no means gained a SAG award for movie paintings.

No.

I’m surprised, I’ll be fair with you.

I’ve been nominated hardly ever too.

What wouldn’t it imply to you to be identified by way of your friends?

You get sure issues that take a seat deeply inside of you when different actors see what you’ve executed on display screen and recognize it or know it — in particular with this movie. I’ve had other actors communicate to me about it and it’s like they get it. They know what it takes to do in particular this sort of sexuality on display screen. When an actor is going, “I do know what that took,” that’s whilst you pass, “Oh, thanks.” And a few actors who’re actually shut buddies of mine, whose reviews I so worth they usually’re tricky, have talked to me intensive about it. And it’s like whilst you mentioned you’re keen on the movie, you’re like, virtually, “Can I hug you?” As it’s like being understood and observed, and that’s crucial factor when it occurs.

It’s emotional.

It’s.

And there’s not anything higher as a viewer to get emotional whilst you’re observing a film.

Or have a robust reaction that ignites on your dating or some form of dialogue on your existence. I learn just lately a work, I feel it was once within the New York Instances, the place he was once announcing, “I’ve more or less misplaced my religion in artwork. I’m now not positive that it will possibly alternate lives.” And I used to be like, “Oh gosh. Wow, I wonder whether that’s true?” After which I assumed, “However grasp on, I’ve indisputably had issues the place I’ve watched issues that experience modified my existence — modified them and even emotionally unlocking one thing or opening a door inside of me that I didn’t reasonably notice was once close. Or permitting some secret feeling to come back alive, as it’s now not utterly loopy or bizarre or traumatic.

It’s the most efficient more or less artwork, and also you stay giving it to us, Nicole.

It’s now not me. It’s now not me.

Nope, you wish to have to take that during.

I will be able to’t.

I do know you’ll’t.

I dangle my head. I will be able to’t as it’s shared. It’s past. There’s not anything with out the one who wrote it, directed it, or acted reverse you. It’s now not in lifestyles. And it’s now not in lifestyles with out the workforce, after which the cinematographer who hustles, since you’re mendacity at the flooring crying they usually know they’ve were given to transport to seize it now. And so they do. It’s like that’s an power, that’s tacit agreements between ingenious other folks going, “Let’s opt for it. Let’s pass after it. Let’s chase it and let’s attempt to in finding it.”